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Messala continued. Far from obscure are the causes which you
seek. Neither to yourself or to our friends, Secundus and Aper, are they
unknown, though you assign me the part of speaking out before you what we
all think. Who does not know that eloquence and all other arts have declined
from their ancient glory, not from dearth of men, but from the indolence of
the young, the carelessness of parents, the ignorance of teachers, and
neglect of the old discipline? The evils which first began in Rome soon spread through Italy,
and are now diffusing themselves into the provinces. But your provincial
affairs are best known to yourselves. I shall speak of Rome, and of those native and home-bred vices which take
hold of us as soon as we are born, and multiply with every stage of life,
when I have first said a few words on the strict discipline of our ancestors
in the education and training of children. Every citizen's son, the child of
a chaste mother, was from the beginning reared, not in the chamber of a
purchased nurse, but in that mother's bosom and embrace, and it was her
special glory to study her home and devote herself to her children. It was
usual to select an elderly kinswoman of approved and esteemed character to
have the entire charge of all the children of the household. In her presence
it was the last offence to utter an unseemly word or to do a disgraceful
act. With scrupulous piety and modesty she regulated not only the boy's
studies and occupations, but even his recreations and games. Thus it was, as
tradition says, that the mothers of the Gracchi, of Cæsar, of
Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, directed their children's education and
reared the greatest of sons. The strictness of the discipline tended to form
in each case a pure and virtuous nature which no vices could warp, and which
would at once with the whole heart seize on every noble lesson. Whatever its
bias, whether to the soldier's or the lawyer's art, or to the study of
eloquence, it would make that its sole aim, and imbibe it in its
fullness.